


Aspirations Outside of Hockey

by amelianonymous



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-12 13:17:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16873587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amelianonymous/pseuds/amelianonymous
Summary: Nursey isn't sure if he wants to study abroad or not.





	Aspirations Outside of Hockey

“So, Derek, have you thought any more about studying abroad? I know you brought it up last semester. With your credits you could go for a year if you want.” Nursey’s academic advisor pushed her glasses up with the eraser of her pencil, poised to take notes. She had another pencil stuck behind her ear, completing her kind-but-eccentric elementary school teacher vibe. 

Nursey sunk deeper into his chair and projected calm. “Nah, I’ll have to get back to you on that, Mrs. P.”

She frowned. “You’re almost a junior.”

Had Nursey been any less chill, he would have cringed. He had dreamed all through high school of that magical study abroad trip that would change his life, where he would write in a city that had all the vivacity of New York but didn’t smell like piss and he would walk to a different museum every day. And maybe, just maybe, he would find his person, all handsome and foreign, with fascinating political opinions further left than his own and a cool oeuvre of installations meant to represent the divine feminine or something, and they would become a globe-hopping power couple. 

He knew, logically, his study abroad experience would never meet those high expectations, even if he went for a full year. He knew studying abroad did, in fact, involve some studying. But he couldn’t shake the image of himself looking out the window of an old coffee shop onto Instagram-perfect bustling streets as the poetry flowed from his fingertips. 

When he had been touring colleges--and he had toured a frankly preposterous amount of colleges--he had heard time and time again that he should study abroad. As they waited for one of the student tour guides, an admissions counselor told him her biggest regret was not studying abroad. Derek had made a promise then and there to not make the same mistake.

But Derek was Nursey now. He was a part of a team that he loved and that loved him back. Studying abroad didn’t just mean living in a foreign country, it meant being away from them. It meant missing a season. And maybe Nursey was ridiculous, but he felt like he might regret missing that season as much as he would regret not studying abroad. 

He would only be able to play with these guys for two more years. The spike of anxiety was difficult to smother. Just two more seasons. He couldn’t miss one. What would they do without him? No one played with Dex as well as he did, they would fall apart and it would be all his fault. The guilt crept up on him until it was struck back suddenly by fear. What if they did better without him? What if they discovered he had been holding them back all along? 

What if when he came back everything had changed and there wasn’t a place for him anymore? 

He took a deep breath. While those were questions that would haunt him late at night, he would be damned if he let his anxiety make this decision for him. He needed to talk this out with someone. Chowder, probably, and Dex too if he could get over how expensive studying abroad was. Hockey or study abroad? Dex wouldn’t consider it much of a quandry, but he was a very practical person and what Nursey was looking to get out of going abroad wasn’t quantifiable. 

“Well,” Mrs. P’s voice broke him out of his thoughts. “You think on that a bit more, okay, honey? Keep me updated.”

Nursey nodded and fled the office. 

  


“Jesus Christ, Nurse,” Dex was pacing around their room which was really too small for him to do so. “Here’s my piece of advice: don’t drop twenty grand on something you’re not sure about.”

Chowder hummed from the bottom bunk. “And don’t forget it’s a year of your time, too.”

“I get that it might not be a financially sound decision, but that’s not what’s bothering me.” Nursey laid his head in Chowder’s lap. This conversation was already giving him a headache. “I’d miss next season.”

“That would be the tradeoff,” Chowder said gently.

Dex sighed and kneeled in front of Chowder, getting his face on the same level as Nursey’s. “Look, it’d be the wrong choice for me, but you aren’t me. Yeah, you’ll miss hockey. You’ll miss a lot of things. Bitty’s last year, and Ollie and Wicks’. Heck, Jack could win the cup.”

“‘Heck.’” Nursey echoed, grinning.

Dex flushed. “What I’m saying is you’ll miss all that stuff, but if you stay here, you’ll miss whatever you would have gotten abroad. You don’t know what that is yet, so it’s a gamble, but we’re going to be here for you whether you go or not. And just like it’s not like the only time you can ever travel is for study abroad, our friendship,” he gestured between the three of them, “isn’t limited to college. I don’t want you to think—” He huffed. 

Chowder took over. “We’re only going to be at Samwell for so long, but we’re always going to be friends.”

Nursey, a little overwhelmed, forced himself to relax. “Chill.” 

While Chowder and Dex had been reaffirming, they hadn’t helped him come to a decision so Nursey reached out to the one person he knew could settle the matter. 

“It’s something you have to decide for yourself, mijo,” his mamá said. He suppressed a groan. “I can’t make this choice for you.”

“I know, Mamá.”

“Of course, I think it’d be a shame if you didn’t go. If a year’s too much, you could do a semester.”

“Yes, Mamá.”

He could barely hear her sigh over the phone. “I just don’t want you to miss out. Once you start a job, you’re not going to have the mobility to do this kind of thing. You’re going to have very limited vacation time and you won’t be able to just move to France or wherever without hurting your career.”

Although he was hoping to become a professional writer, which should grant him more flexibility than other jobs, she was right. For the first couple of years especially as he was hunting down an agent, he wouldn’t be able to move as freely. This may be his only chance for a long time to live in another country. It may be his only chance ever. 

“Thanks, Mamá.”

  


He shot a quick email off to Mrs. P. 

  


(“You know,” Dex said to him during practice, “you could just study abroad over the summer.”

And Nursey nearly tripped on the ice. How on Earth had he forgotten that?)


End file.
